It was at MWC this year that Sony announced its plans to axe the much acclaimed Z series and instead come up with an entirely new line-up called the X Series. The Z-Series was in fact the epicenter of the Xperia line-up especially more so with the Z flagship series, which till recently (till Z3) managed to impress the buyers with every iterative upgrade. Today, Sony has launched the X Series line-up for its Indian audience with the X and the XA. The X-Series is expected to bring in the fresh whiff of air that Sony has been desperately looking out for.

The Xperia X comes equipped with a 5-inch FHD display and is powered by Snapdragon 650, clocked at 1.8GHz and paired with a 3GB of RAM. The Xperia X offers 32GB of onboard storage along with a microSD card that can accommodate up to 200GB. On the design front the Xperia X is not much of a departure from the Xperia Z series, the metal accents and the upscale finish add elegance to the phone but still look reminiscent of its predecessor. The Xperia X offers 32GB of internal storage along with a microSD card that can accommodate up to 200GB.

It is on the imaging front that the X-Series manages to earn the much needed Brownie points, the 23-Megapixel primary sensor along with the 13-Megapixel secondary sensor is expected to appease the shutterbugs. The higher resolution front camera sensor seems to be an attempt to draw the selfie fans. The Xperia X runs on Android Marshmallow and is backed by a 2620mAh battery pack.

The first thing that one might notice in the Xperia XA is the 5-inch HD edge to edge display that wraps around the bezel. Even on the Xperia XA the finishing and the design seem top notch and it leaves no scope for nit-picking. The Xperia XA is powered by MediaTek MT6755 Helio 10 and paired with a 2GB of RAM. On the storage front it offers 16GB of internal storage along with a microSD card that can accommodate up to 200GB.

Xperia XA offers a 13-Megapixel primary sensor and 8-Megapixel secondary sensor. The device will run the Android Marshmallow along with the Xperia overlay. Xperia XA is backed by a 2300mAh battery that comes laced with the Qnovo Adaptive Charging Technology and smart battery management system. Another feature to write home about is the instant launching of camera app, Sony touts that both the Xperia X and the XA will fire up the camera in just 0.6 sec from the lock screen. Furthermore, the predictive hybrid autofocus is said to have been developed by the Sony α™ engineers.

Sony Xperia X is priced at Rs 48,990 and will start retailing from 6th of June while the Xperia XA is priced at Rs 20,990 and will hit the market from third week of June. Both the devices will be made available in shades of White, Graphite Black, Lime Gold and Rose Gold and will come with the usual bevy of connectivity features including dual-SIM support. The Xperia X and the Xperia XA will both be available exclusively on Amazon. Sony has further tried to sweeten the deal with freebies worth Rs 2,700, which also includes a Rs 1,000 Amazon Kindle e-book coupon.

While we do understand that Sony is charting its comeback into the smartphone industry, it needs to understand the fact that the market dynamics have been heavily altered with the rise of Chinese companies like Huawei, Xiaomi and others. The Xperia X should have come with a better processor especially if one glances at the price tag and the Xperia XA should have been equipped with better hardware, for instance a FHD display. The phone still misses out on features like Fingerprint sensor and IP67 protection, something that the Xperia Z series was known for.

Disclosure: The editor of this blog was flown in to the launch of this phone in Thailand by Sony.

Mahit Huilgol Senior Author Mahit Huilgol is a Mechanical Engineering graduate and is a Technology and Automobile aficionado. He ditched the Corporate boardroom wars in the favor for technology battle ground. Also a foodie by heart and loves both the edible chips and the non-edible silicon chips.